climate change

I became aware that things needed to change when I was a teenager in the sixties. We were being told that there were too many people in the world and so even before I married for the first time, we agreed we would have two children and then foster and adopt as the feelings took us. And during the seventies that is what happened. We had two boys the natural way, fostered new born babies before they were then adopted (it helped to purge my broody feelings) and then prepared ourselves to adopt a two year old girl in the early eighties.

In 1984 the book 'E for Additives' was published which first made me aware of all the extras that are put into our every-day food. Around the same time our close friends saw a programme on tv that showed how animals were farmed to get meat on our plates. Overnight they became vegetarians and we were very pleased to receive the meat from their freezer! When they describe their new diet, we had one major excuse not to follow their example as our younger son was very allergic to nuts! However, I did include a few vegetarian dishes into our meals. By then we were living in a large house which we filled with various foster children, lodgers and foreign students, as well as our own three children. One of our lodgers was studying for his Masters in Conservation at London University. What he discovered during the day, he made sure I put into action in our home; our washing up liquid and washing powder was changed to more eco-friendly ones and the loo was only flushed when necessary! 

In the nineties, I became aware of the value of organic food; less chemicals in our bodies and far better for the soil and the birds and bees and all the other tiny insects we never see.

However, a few years ago, that same younger son realised that he was not allergic to peanuts - they are not nuts, they are legumes - and promptly became vegetarian. He has put me to shame! We do like our meat, so we save meat for the weekend and eat our veggies during the week.

I would like to have an electric car but I don't think it will ever happen. Although we have a drive to park on and the facility to charge a car, my sons who each live 200 miles away live in houses unsuitable to install a charger. Also, when deciding on what car to purchase, we spent a lot of time working out which petrol car would be  suitable to tow a caravan, with the best mpg and lowest co2. It was bought to last us for the rest of our driving lifetime.

I'm not sure when I became aware of the fact that the climate was warming but I know that my reaction was that I would be quite happy as I felt the cold! Especially as one summer in the late nineties, we decided to cancel our camping holiday in September due to the weather being unusually cold! What I was never aware of at the time was that climate change would affect far more than me being a couple of degrees warmer. But now we are beginning to feel the effects; the torrential rains leading to flooding, the fires, the droughts and the ice caps are melting. It is still unknown as to who was behind the hack in 2009 into the emails of Professor Philip Jones, the former Director of Climatic Research at the University of East Anglia, whose research showed the devastation of climate change by the end of this century. We can only guess, and pray that those in power come to their senses. Meanwhile we continue to do what we can.

 

getting there

Following on from my last two posts I've now finished writing up my Mum's words onto the computer and filled in most of the missing gaps with the help of my brother who has filled in the holes in my memory! I've also written up my Grandma's and Great-Grandma's life stories adding photographs including ones from 1879! 
I have found a printer who will print as many copies as I would like at a reasonable price. But first, I am about to start on my life.
Between us four women we cover the whole of the twentieth century from horse drawn carriages to the age of computers but all four of us could not relax without without some form of needle in our hands whether it be knitting, crochet, sewing or embroidery. The first three were taught 'the devil finds work for idle hands' - I just love to knit!

Mum's family get their first wireless

I'm writing up my Mum's memoirs and have arrived at 1932 when at the age of nine, she was over the moon to have a real live doll in the form of a baby brother whom she adored for the whole of his life - she eventually outlived him.

Mum wrote;

Also about this time we acquired a wireless, which was a great event in all our lives. It had a fret- work front over fawn silk which covered the speaker and stood with great pride on a shelf. No electricity or batteries as we know them - the power came from a collection of about 12 ‘wet’ batteries housed in a wooden cabinet which Dad made. 

These batteries had to be taken to the shop to be charged - one each week - and as each was about half the size of a car battery, you can imagine this was quite a job. 

We still had one of these types of wireless in 1948. 

There were just 2 stations at this time - Daventry National and London Regional, and it was like magic to hear music coming out of this box on the shelf. 

Previously the only music I heard was Mum singing around the house (which she did all the time). Mostly she sang the old Music Hall songs, so I got to know them well, but if I joined in with her, she immediately switched to singing alto, so I got used to part-singing. 

Now we had all the dance bands - Harry Roy etc, and always Henry Hall at Saturday tea-time, followed by the football results, the news and the fat-stock prices!

This was really when people began to know what was going on in other parts of the country and the world, but communication was still very much in its infancy. 

memories of shopping

Back in the early eighties my Mum wrote about her life and gave a copy each to me and my brother in large photograph albums along with some old black and white photos.
I'm now copying it along with memories from my Grandma and what we know about my Great Gran and my own memories for my boys and their boys.

The following is from Mum:

Shopping was fun when I was little - nothing was pre-packed. 

There was no plastic or polythene and all goods reached the shops in bulk and were weighed out by the shop assistant. 

Sugar came in blue bags - about 1cwt, in each I should think, and the assistant would use a scoop and weigh it out, then make a cone out of paper, twist the bottom and put the sugar in, folding over the top deftly and neatly so that none came out. 

I was always fascinated by the speed and accuracy with which this was done. 

All dry goods were sold in these paper cones before paper bags came into favour. 

Butter was the other interesting commodity - it came in a large block and the required amount would be cut off with a pair of butter pats, patted this way and that until it was a neat shape and swiftly wrapped in greaseproof paper. 

Assistants were expert at cutting off just the right amount and rarely had to take any off or put any more on. 

Bacon was sliced to order, and different thicknesses were numbered. When cooked the bacon was delicious - it didn’t ooze salt as it does now, but just just crisped up beautifully. 

Salt came in a block, about 10”x4”x4”, and my job was to cut this up as required and put it in a large jam jar - a horrible job if you happened to have a cut in your finger! 

Biscuits were weighed out from a 7lb tin, and the residue were sold very cheaply as broken biscuits, [these could still be found when I was a teen] and usually contained a good proportion of cream wafers, as these broke most easily! 

There were very few tinned goods and if things were out of season you just didn’t have them. Fruit was a luxury, which was why we always had an orange and a few nuts in our Christmas stocking - a great treat. 

Apples were for the summer, and bananas rarely if ever. Grapes were strictly for the sick as they were expensive. There was a Music Hall joke about snobs who always had a bowl of fruit in the parlour window, to kid everyone they were rich!

how to make me laugh

Earlier this week I received an email from an American publishing company inviting me to join their Editorial Board.
Now some of you may think that is quite an honour but I just laughed.
Why?
Because they want me to join the Editorial Board of Trends in Horticulture.
And why is that so funny?
Because the article of mine that they said they had read was; 'Susannah and the Lemon Tree; Mrs C.H. Spurgeon's Book Fund'.
It had everything to do with Susannah and books and nothing to do with horticulture apart from the fact that she grew a lemon tree from a pip and likened each leaf to the hundreds of books she was able to send out to ministers with little money. The lemon tree never produced a lemon.

Another aspect to my laugh is the fact that I have have very sensitive skin and do not enjoy gardening - touch anything and I come up in a rash. I stay indoors and just come out to gather a few herbs for dinner. 
It was a wonderful laugh first thing on a Monday morning but no I won't be taking them up on their kind invitation. I'm even wondering if it is a scam.

a technical education

Apparently Teresa May has attacked snobbery among parents who think that a technical education is for other people's children.
I wonder how our society has come to be in that position? 

In the sixties, my parents were thrilled when I went to the London College of Fashion.
Each day when I arrived home, my Mum would ask me what short cuts in dressmaking I had learned, which I would then pass on to her.
Unknown to me, when I had a couple of my designs featured in an international fabric publication, my Dad took the insert to work to show his colleagues. 
They didn't think I should be at a university, they knew where my talents lay and saw me thrive.

In the early nineties, there was no snobbery when both of my boys went to technical colleges to follow their dreams.

Who are these parents who are not aware of their offspring's natural gifts, talents and dreams?

I am proud of my technical education, it provided me with an income while staying at home looking after the children when they were little which could not have happened if I had taken the other option of becoming an actuary!

fashion and politics

For those of you wondering about my arm, it is now thought that I did dislocate my elbow on falling but it righted itself as I was helped up by the paramedics! My lower arm has turned a deep purple, now fading slightly to a lovely yellow! I have photos but as they also show why I never wear sleeveless or short sleeved tops, they are not for publication! The swelling has gone down enough for me to be able to wear my wedding ring again and I'm nearly able to wear my watch on my left wrist. 
Movement is still impaired, automatically picking up the phone with my left hand is ok, getting it to my ear is another matter! Tomorrow I'm hoping to be able to wash my hair but at the beginning of the week I had to get an emergency appointment at the hairdressers to wash my hair and cut it to an easily manageable style. Which is why I was walking through a certain high street store in Hereford and happened to notice the colours of the clothes.
I have been interested in the history of clothes and national dress since I was small but in recent years have looked at why we wear what we wear. The colours we wear can tell a lot about our work as well as our personality. But even more fascinating is that politics seem to determine the fashion colours. Back in the sixties, green and purple were the in colours when we had a labour government. When the government is conservative in come the bright jewel colours; ruby red, sapphire blue and emerald green. 
However, when Blair came to power, the colours didn't change and many felt that 'New Labour' was more like old Conservative. Now the Conservatives are back, the shops are full of yellow and lime green; colours one couldn't find a few years back and more suited to Labour! Many were surprised that the Conservatives got in at the last election as well as it seems they themselves!
We are told that the austerity will get worse, if so, watch out for the longer skirt lengths.